Meatless Monday: Manicotti

Manicotti is a great (although not too healthy, it has a lot of cheese, okay?) vegetarian dish. You can eat it without any other side dishes, although I highly suggest having some garlic bread with it (I mean, who doesn’t like garlic bread?). Some carrots with ranch might not have been a bad side dish either.

Manicotti

Total time: About 1 1/2 hours

Serves: at least 4

14 manicotti shells (1 package)

1 carton (15 oz) ricotta cheese

2 cups (8 oz) shredded mozzarella

1 package (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1/2 cup sour cream

1 TB Italian seasoning

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

4-5 cups Prego (or other tomato sauce)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook noodles according to package’s directions. When done, put shells on foil so they don’t stick to one another. Let cool.

Stuff manicotti with cheese mixture (I used a small spoon for this). Place in dish and pour remaining Prego on top.

Cover dish with foil and bake for 55 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle remaining mozzarella on top, cook another 15 minutes.

This recipe is definitely more than enough for two people. It took Gene and I a couple of days for us to finish it all. We didn’t have all of the seasonings so we used garlic powder, onion salt, and a bit of pepper. It turned out delicious. We also had a problem fitting all of the noodles into the dish. It was a little cramped but didn’t seem to affect the taste. Leftovers are pretty decent. The noodles do suck up the tomato sauce so if you’re planning on having leftovers you might want to have a bit of sauce set out on the side to add to the manicotti when you reheat.

I wish there were a bit more veggies in this recipe, but I’m not sure what else I would add. Perhaps some more spinach? If you have an idea, comment!